Nanyin Zhang, PhDHartz Family ProfessorDepartment of Biomedical EngineeringThe Huck Institutes of the Life SciencesThe Pennsylvania State University

Abstract

A major challenge in research on the pathophysiology of brain disorders has been the difficulty to directly translate from human symptoms to animal models that have a unique behavioral repertoire. The brain circuit function and connectivity, which has become accessible through the broad application of fMRI in humans, might provide a link between animal models and observations in humans with psychiatricdisease. However, this task has been largely unsuccessful, primarily due to the confounding effects of anesthesia in most animal fMRI experiments. Our lab has established an approach that allows animal’s brain circuit function to be examined at the awake state and investigation of the link between animal models and human pathophysiology for psychiatric disorders.

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